The Fugitive (1993)

A
SDG

(Pre-DecentFilms capsule review) Taut, effective serial-chase story, based on
the TV series, of Dr. Richard Kimble (Ford), whose wife is
murdered by a one-armed man and is himself wrongly accused of the
murder. A vehicular accident sets Kimble free, and he spends the
rest of the movie fleeing from a crack team of U.S. Marshals
commanded by Jones’ Sam Gerard — and pursuing the one-armed man
who robbed him of his wife and his life.

Artistic/Entertainment Value

Moral/Spiritual Value

Age Appropriateness

MPAA Rating

Caveat Spectator

Ford exudes decency in the role of the innocent man wrongly
accused, as Kimble throughout the movie consistently goes out
of his way to help other people at his own expense, regularly
risking capture and even death for the sake of others. Best known
for playing confident, capable action heroes in the Indiana Jones and Star Wars
movies, Ford is also remarkably persuasive in the role of the
unlikely action hero — the unassuming, nonphysical,
white-collar professional who isn’t used to swashbuckling (a role
he played also in Frantic and Air Force One).

Jones, who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, plays
Gerard as a hard-boiled, ultra-competent officer whose initial
concern is simply to recapture a fugitive but whose canny
instincts gradually lead him to put the pieces together. What
makes the repeated chase scenes especially thrilling is that both
pursuer and pursued are smart and capable and brave, and neither
makes any mistakes; the story doesn’t resort either to making the
policeman bumbling and inept or the fugitive merely lucky. You
admire and root for them both, and want them to be allies rather
than opponents.